Naive google ranking question

Bear with me I am not a technical person at all. Just know how to turn the PC on and off and click on Firefox.

A friend of mine wants me to sell a service for a friend of his as I know how to sell and he doesn't.

So I would like someone here to tell me if the following seems right to you as I don't understand these things.

He claims that his friend can look at a website of a local business and work out whether or not he can get it onto page 1 of google.

If he can then he calls them and tells them that he can but it will take up to 12 weeks for whatever he is doing to pay off.

Once he has set up whatever it is he is doing to their website he apparantly can't turn it off.

He also says that he can't guarantee that the site will stay on the front page but if it drops off give him another 12 weeks to try and get it back there.

He also doesn't need to take over their websites to do whatever it is he is doing.

He only has a 2 year window to sell until other people know what he is doing.

Does any of this seem right to you? My gut feeling is that it doesn't sound right to me.

Moreover, he was a photographer who only learnt how to design websites about 6 months ago so I can't believe that he can do what professional companies can't do.

However, he has done this for a removal company in the North called mrshifterbradford which to me looks like a hideous abomination of a website but is ranked number 2 on google if you key 'removals in bradford' and number 4 if you key in 'bradford removals.' Both into the .co.uk version of google.

Previously this website was on about page 6 or 7 so he has done something.

Any ideas what he is doing?

Sorry for being a bit long winded. If you are in the UK I can maybe phone you or e-mail you. Guess I can e-mail someone in the US too.

An SEO that can not promote him self ? How is he suppose to communicate and promote his clients, I wouldnt get involved if i was you. Could be a case of him wanting someone else to be the face of the operation in case he messes up.

Those search terms are also not competitive for natural searches however as mentioned its most likely he's just submitted the company to Local/maps

Therefore if I pay someone to get on page one of google then surely you get me on page one of google and keep me there or I wont pay you.

Dan,

SEO is like that. Mostly because the whole process is entirely dependent on Google/Bing/etc algorithms, and no "SEO expert" really knows how the algorithms work. It's all mostly trial-and-error, learn from experience, test stuff, you get the idea...

If someone "guarantees" you page one or w/e rankings - don't trust them. That doesn't mean that your friend should be trusted though. Too many variables come into play, it's your call really.